


Start By Emptying

by voleuse



Category: The 4400
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-28
Updated: 2007-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-04 03:32:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Life is, mostly, a series of imagined imperatives</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Start By Emptying

**Author's Note:**

> Set before 4.12. Title and summary adapted from Kristen Case's _Housework_.

It might have been a minute, or an hour, to Shawn's perception, but for three years, Susan set an empty place at the dinner table and pretended she had two sons, instead of just one.

When the 4400 returned, she dusted all the furniture, washed Shawn's favorite jersey, and told herself everything would be right again. She filled the freezer with hot dogs and pistachio ice cream, and raided the bargain bin at Blockbuster.

Now, Shawn's surrounded by a blockade of media and security and staff, and she still hasn't returned the wedding gift she bought for him last year. When she calls him in the morning to tell him she loves him, his aide has to check his schedule before putting her through.

When Susan sets the table for dinner, sometimes she forgets and puts three plates on the table. It's only after everything's done that she remembers, with regret: Shawn returned after three years gone, but he never came back home.


End file.
